Only after WW2 they became richer and developed middle classes and faggy welfare states

Birdshits dont appreciate this, pretend Euro was always soooo rich ljl, London was all slums in early 90s. Wtf do u think haords of Euros fled to US until 1920s?

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5913511&forum_id=2#50194096)

I'd legit start blasting people if this was my life

Ur parents robbed you of a simple village life

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5913511&forum_id=2#50194144)

Meta AI just re-confirmed, eat shit BENCHOD

Yes, if you mean rich as in how regular people live today - secure housing, appliances, meat every day, a car, vacations, kids staying in school into their teens - then yes, that's almost entirely post-WW2.

Western Europe was *relatively* rich compared to the rest of the world long before that, but regular people were poor by any modern standard.

Think of it in three phases:

### 1. Before 1914: The richest region in the world, but most people are still struggling

Britain, France, Germany, Belgium, Netherlands were the industrial core of the world. GDP per capita was higher than anywhere else.

But for a factory worker, miner, or farmhand in 1900-1930:

- No indoor plumbing or central heating for most

- 60+ hour work weeks, very little safety net if you got sick or old

- Food was like 50-60% of a household budget. Meat was a luxury.

- Most kids left school at 12-14 to work

- You rented one or two rooms, you didn't own a house

So the countries were rich, the masses weren't.

There were improvements between 1870-1914 - real wages did go up, literacy, sanitation - but it was from a very low base.

### 2. 1914-1945: 30 years of catastrophe

WW1, Great Depression, WW2 wiped out most of those gains. In 1945, much of Western Europe was literally poorer than in 1913 in terms of housing, caloric intake, infrastructure. Rationing in the UK lasted until 1954.

### 3. 1945-1973: When it actually becomes mass prosperity

This is what the French call *Les Trente Glorieuses* - the 30 glorious years. This is when regular people get rich.

A few things combined:

**a) The economy finally grew for everyone.** 4-6% growth per year for almost 30 years straight. Full employment. Marshall Plan helped restart trade, but the big driver was internal - rebuilding, electrification, mass production of consumer goods.

**b) The welfare state.** This is the key difference. Post-war governments, both left and right, built systems that didn't really exist before: universal healthcare, state pensions, unemployment insurance, massive public housing, free secondary education and then mass university. So even if your wage was modest, you weren't one accident away from destitution.

**c) Productivity met wages.** Factories making fridges, washing machines, TVs, cars could only make money if regular workers could buy them. So you get this loop: higher productivity -> higher wages -> more consumption -> more productivity.

By 1960 a French or West German worker had a fridge, by 1970 a car and TV, by 1975 an annual paid vacation. That had never been true before.

So your intuition is right:

- Western Europe was *economically dominant* since ~1800

- It was *noticeably better for workers* than 50 years earlier by ~1900-1910

- But it only became *mass affluent* - where a bus driver or secretary lives what we'd recognize as a middle-class life - after 1945, really in the 1950s-60s.

Before that, "middle class" was a small minority. After that, it became the norm.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5913511&forum_id=2#50195387)

Much much much much more advanced than india != rich

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5913511&forum_id=2#50195396)